Tag Archives: Bailey

We missed our normal New Year’s party at Happy Fish this year. With the holiday falling mid-week, resetting PTO banks and just all around difficulties coordinating, we did NYE in town and avoided the hassle. Since our last group outing to the cabin was back in July, we thought celebrating Super Bowl Sunday at Happy Fish sounded like a great plan.

We made plans for everyone to arrive either Friday or Saturday and head home Sunday or Monday. Lisa, Jeanne, Jer, Cheryl and Rob all made it to the cabin Friday, while Col and I drove up from SGU Saturday after he got off work. We also invited Hayley and Lance for their first Happy Fish trip, and they drove down from SLC on Saturday.

There was a pretty good amount of snow on the ground when we arrived, and the temperatures were pretty frigid. The lake didn’t look to be completely frozen yet, which was surprising given how cold our winter has been. Lisa said she can’t remember another time it wasn’t frozen all the way out. Even with the snow, everyone was able to get their cars all the way in, so no snow shoeing and hauling supplies was necessary. It snowed a couple times over the weekend, and some of us were hoping we’d get snowed in and not be able to leave Monday. But, there was no such luck.

We enjoyed a fun Saturday night drinking, playing games and having fun (for some of us a little too much fun). On Sunday we spent the morning decorating for the game and getting all our food ready. We probably overdid it with our menu planning, but we enjoyed all the traditional game day snacks and delicacies…queso dip (2 kinds!), cocktail weenies and meatballs. I also made a big pot of chicken cilantro soup that came out really good.

For once we actually had fans on both sides of the game. So, the rivalry and trash talk promised to be good. That was, until there simply wasn’t a game. It became clear very early on that it would have just been mean to trash talk Denver, so we mostly all just enjoyed the commercials and hoped Cheryl didn’t go on a rampage on us. We lucked out and nobody was injured.

This was Kendall’s first Happy Fish trip, and she had a blast. We had been wondering what she would do unleashed in deep snow, and she cracked us up hopping through it. She didn’t seem to like the really deep stuff and would get nervous if she got too far into it. She loved playing around the cabin and hanging out on the deck, even though it was cold out. I think she’ll really enjoy our summer trips up when she can run loose in the meadow. It was quite the dog weekend with four pups in the cabin always underfoot…especially when there was activity in the kitchen.

We spent Monday morning playing darts and hanging out before starting the inevitable (and always hated) process of cleaning and packing to go home. Luckily the weather was pretty nice for the drive home, so we didn’t have to worry about bad road conditions.

It was fun to have a new reason to party at Happy Fish. As usual, it’s a special place for us all, and good times reigned supreme.

Since day one Bailey has been hard to win over. It took several months before she would let me pet her for more than five seconds. During the first six months I had her the mere act of putting on a leash elicited looks like I was about to bash her over the head with something heavy.

As I mentioned in her birthday post, she’s come a long way over the last three years. But, the other night I had what I would consider a breakthrough with her. I was messing around and started speaking to the dog in Spanish. And, quite to my surprise, she reacted. She became animated and excited, running around the room and wagging her tail. I told her she was a “bueno perro,” and she nudged my hand.

Epiphany! Bailey is Mexican. It’s clear. Over the last couple days I’ve been praising her in Spanish and she definitely responds to it.